Episode 19: "Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants" by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell
Michelangelo + Constantinople + ??? = profit(?!)
Hello!
Apologies for the gap in posting: a holiday + some seasonal colds led to a bit of a hiccup. We’re back on the horse, though, and this week we will have two episodes up to get things back on track. So keep an eye out for an email on Friday for our next Spark title, The Ballad of Peckham Rye.
We will have new episodes every Friday through the end of this year and then we’ll have a bit of a break at the start of January, before returning with more Spark, more guests, and more bookseller nerdiness.
In today’s episode we discuss Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, an absolutely wonderful gem of a novel from French author Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell. In 150ish pages Énard recreates the Constantinople of the early 16th Century and the brief time Michelangelo resided there to build a grand bridge. If you’ve not read Énard before this is an absolutely fantastic jumping on point.
Towards the end of the episode Lori mentions a lecture Énard delivered at Barnard College. You can find that here.
As always, thanks for listening!